Allotments 4 All

Put 8 Maris Peer in 1st september in polytunnel. tops 6 inches up now. 

Bosnian Yellow.  Another bean received originally from Dutch seed saver Jaap Vlaming, which he spotted in a garden on a journey to Bosnia.  He admired them and ended up asking and receiving seeds.  A slightly later bean, but a beauty worth waiting for, with pale lilac flowers and long and broad delicious pods.  These are for fresh eating, but the seeds are not small and any left over can be used as drying beans too.  The beans inside develop relatively quickly, a bit like the Appalachian beans where we eat both beans and the beanies inside together, but the pods stay good for eating a long time.   

First catalogue for the 2027 season has arrived. Kings. Yay, I do love a good seed catalogue, this year's Kings is falling apart from regular flicking through.    I can't be the only one to enjoy a catalogue!

Not tried this but I think the advice is for 1st/2nd earlies.

Is it worth it?

Quote from: JanG on September 03, 2026, 06:57:37I've now found a photo of yellowish peppers which then apparently eventually ripened to red. Perhaps yours will still change colour?

These are similar to Tabasco-type chillies.

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Thanks for the references. I don't get a photo of peppers hanging down; just two picked peppers. Am I missing something? Interestingly the peppers in the two sources look rather different, the first smoother that the second.
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https://www.ukchilliseeds.co.uk/Dong-Xuan-Market-Rare-Chilli-Pepper-Seeds-x-10

Sorry I forgot to answer.  Scroll down a bit and click on the second photo with the yellow fruit.

Quote from: JanG on September 01, 2026, 07:19:51I'm very keen to grow this again. Its keeping qualities are amazing and so good to keep it going. Great that you've managed to hand pollinate it, Galina.

This is how the fruit starts off, a rich forest green on a young fruit.  Its neighbour has almost reached full storage colour.   My two plants have long outgrown their allocated bed and they are scrambling over the adjacent grass area.  This squash is vigorous and needs its space. 

We are going to be in for some treats.  And thank you Jeannine again for your generosity and Jan for passing the joy on to all of us.  MR looking forward to these minis.  The Christmas Tree mini has done rather well here and the surprisingly large fruit did look like large baubles on a Christmas tree.   

Great to have such a wonderful range of tomatoes in prospect. Many thanks to Galina and Markfield Rover. It looks like it's going to be another bonanza year for tomatoes. I know Old Wyandotte is a great tomato and the others to me are all new surprises.

I have a few to add myself. I've mentioned before the amazing selection of tomato seeds I was sent from Canada by the ever generous Jeannine who some of you know from earlier days of A4A. The three varieties I've grown this year are Buratino, which I've already mentioned and posted a photo of, Mushroom Basket and Vintage Wine.All are beautiful, Mushroom Basket being large and ribbed and Vintage Wine beautifully striped. I very much want to contribute to these varieties being more widely distributed as I know Jeannine would want.

In addition I'm hoping to contribute Yusupovskiy S. Fergany, a tomato from Uzbekistan developed around 1960. The origin of the name seems to be unclear but an original Yusupov tomato was developed by one Yusupov in a research station and Yusupov himself apparently published a book about his tomato. This particular line apparently came from Fergana in Uzbekistan at a later date. It's a very large, pinkish slicing tomato.

Anna Russian is an heirloom oxheart variety. The history is that it was sent to Craig LeHoullier in 1989 from Brenda Hillenius, of Oregon, who got the seeds from her grandfather, Kenneth Wilcox, who received seeds from a Russian immigrant. Craig LeHoullier introduced it to the SSE Yearbook in 1989.
It's an excellent early maturing pinkish-red heart-shaped tomato with a good juicy traditional tomato flavour.

Orange Banana is a fairly widely available, variety, good for sauces etc. as it's meaty and quite pasty. It's productive and quite unusual to have a yellowish variety for making sauce. It's a Russian heirloom dating back to the 1930s introduced to the US via Seed Savers.

I received seeds of all three of these from a seed swap with a different Canadian donor. Photos to follow.

Some more tomatoes, micro dwarf... Orange Hat and Fat Frog , enjoyed growing these more than I thought I would, a very handy tomato.